Two things.

Via the UK law students comes this most quirky of stories:

A high-profile New Zealand lawyer has decided to wear women’s clothing to court to highlight male bias within the justice system.

Rob Moodie, 67, arrived at Wellington’s High Court on Monday in a blue women’s suit, stockings and a diamond brooch.

OK… In other news, Peter has organised a Short Notice Blogmeet in Edinburgh for this Sunday (30th). The plan is to have something to eat/drink before making our way up Arthur’s Seat to conduct the first volcano-based blogmeet. If you fancy joining us, pop a message in the Peter’s comment box.

Hello from snowy Harrogate. Despite the weather, I arrived only an hour later than intended yesterday afternoon and had a chance to watch Deal or No Deal before heading to the conference centre.

Rather than attend the Meeting the Challenge and Meet the New Leader session, which I correctly predicted was standing room only, I went straight to the bar, and from there to the pub, and from there for a curry. An excellent conference evening catching up with various LibDems I’d not seen for ages.

I went to the Post Office debate this morning. When I read the conference agenda, I thought “interesting motion” and not much more. Reading the papers yesterday, I discovered that apparently it’s a controversial motion and the party is split on it. So, I went along. There were some good speeches – Chris Huhne got a long, loud round of applause when he arrived on stage to speak in favour – and the motion was passed overwhelmingly.

Then to breakfast, and back to the conference centre for fringes – all of which were packed full. So we headed back into town. I’m now back in the conference centre, which is much warmer than outside.

Before I go, here’s a photo of Advocates Close in Edinburgh yesterday morning. I’d popped into the National Library, at which point it was snowing very lightly. When I emerged half an hour later, nearly a centimetre of snow had fallen, and it was continuing to fall heavily.

As a good “citizen journalist“, I took notes at the Edinburgh leadership hustings to type up later. I don’t think that’s going to happen – I’m still full of cold and not up to long posts. Stephen and Richard were there and have written good summaries.

Two aspects of the hustings I will mention. The first was the turnout. The room was so full that the Dyanmic Earth fire regulations meant there had to be an overflow room and the candidates repeated their speeches to the people who couldn’t get in the main hall. In an age of apparent political apathy, it was great to see so many people – some of them not even party members – turn out to hear politicians speak.

The second thing that I noticed at the hustings was that it wasn’t a pro-Ming rally. I had, perhaps naively, assumed that Ming’s home town would be lined up behind their local candidate, but there seemed to be a good split of supporters in the room, along with many people who were undecided. I felt that Chris Huhne’s speech won the biggest round of applause, which came as a pleasant surprise. Ming did his “I’ve got a speech but I’m not going to make it” turn, which seems somewhat less sponataneous when you’ve read other reports of it – he did it again last night.

The candidates were pretty well matched when it came to questions and I suspect that, as the hustings have gone on, they’ve adopted some of each others policies and turns of phrase to fill in gaps of their own. None of them scored a knockout blow, although I was pleased to see that Huhne has started reference Ming’s U-turn over Iraq. Huhne stickers appeared to be shifting well after the event.

I went to help me decide how to cast my second preference. Cracking a few jokes and being fairly genial, Ming was good enough to convince me that he does deserve to be my second choice. Simon did well on the day, but he did nothing to convince me that my concerns about him are unfounded.

Having voted, I worked out today that I could offset my disappointment if Huhne loses by betting on both Simon and Ming. I may not have got the best odds available, but with Simon at 16-1 and Ming at 3-2, I’ve placed my bets in such a way as to ensure a profit if Chris loses. And if he wins, I’ll be too pleased to notice. 🙂

Went to Scottish bloggers blogmeet in Edinburgh. Met people. Drank alcohol. Took photos. Came home. Good time had. Thanks to Gordon for organising.

Tomorrow: back to Edinburgh for the leadership hustings.